{"id":37184,"date":"2023-10-20T14:48:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/want-to-inspire-kids-to-learn-stem-get-them-to-build-a-robot-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:48:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:48:35","slug":"want-to-inspire-kids-to-learn-stem-get-them-to-build-a-robot-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/want-to-inspire-kids-to-learn-stem-get-them-to-build-a-robot-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to inspire kids to learn STEM? Get them to build a robot – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0Heather Handley<\/em><\/p>\n The music is pumping, the crowd is cheering and people are dancing. This is science, technology, engineering and maths\u00a0but not as you know it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre as an invited judge for the 2016 Australia Regional FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.<\/p>\n The competition is for students aged around 14-18 who, with the help of mentors and teachers, have six weeks (or significantly less in several cases) to design, build and program a robot for a designated challenge. This would be a difficult task even for seasoned engineers.<\/p>\n Forty-three teams from all around Australia, China, India, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA are here to take part, and the atmosphere is electric.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s challenge is a medieval quest, with the arena designed as a castle and the challenge is to break through their opponent\u2019s defences, weaken their tower with boulders (sponge balls) and try to capture it.<\/p>\n The teams have to work in an alliance with two other teams and develop a strategy together to beat the opposite alliance. Things can go wrong, and when something fails it\u2019s back to the pit to problem solve and fix things under intense time pressure, all with the additional stress of the judges pestering them with questions.<\/p>\n